Completed Event: Gymnastics versus NCAA Championship Final on April 19, 2025 , , 4th of 4 (197.2375)
Final Score
Gymnastics
4th of 4 (197.2375)
vs NCAA Championship Final
Red Rocks Made Their Mark in 2019
5/29/2019 2:25 PM | Gymnastics
SALT LAKE CITY—The 2019 Utah gymnasts definitely understood the magnitude of their accomplishment when they emerged from a grueling Baton Rouge Regional to qualify into the NCAA Championships. For the first time in the history of women's collegiate gymnastics, advancing to the national championships involved placing in the top two on back-to-back nights of regional competition. Just eight teams in the nation—the fewest ever—qualified into the 2019 NCAA Championships and Utah was among them.
And they did it while carrying an increasingly heavy burden of history. Every Utah team dating back to 1976 had made the NCAA Championship cut—a record among women's gymnastics programs.
The beginning of a new, challenging NCAA format marked the end of another era. College gymnastics legend Megan Marsden told her team on its return from the championships that she was retiring after 39 seasons with the Utes—35 as a coach and four as a national champion gymnast. Marsden leaves an indelible print on the NCAA landscape as the only woman to win national titles as a gymnast and a coach. She contributed to all 10 of Utah's national titles (four as a gymnast and six as a coach), including nine NCAA Championships.
The 2019 team, which she co-coached with Tom Farden, ensured she never missed a national championship during her tenure at Utah. Marsden's 39-consecutive trips to college gymnastics' biggest stage is the second longest streak in history and trails only her husband Greg Marsden, who took the Utes to 40-consecutive national championships before retiring after the 2015 season.
Fortunately for Utah, Farden had been groomed by the Marsdens to step in and take over the program when they retired—their intent when they hired him away from Arkansas in 2011. In his four seasons as the co-head coach with Megan, Farden managed the training schedule and recruiting. His roots in the program allowed her step away knowing the program was in good hands.
There were plenty of highlights leading up to the NCAA season finale. With MaKenna Merrell-Giles and Kari Lee as their senior co-captains, the 2019 Red Rocks opened their season with six straight wins. The team would set a school record for most 197 scores in a season with 13, including all 12 regular season meets. At the conference championship, the Utes applied the pressure on eventual winner UCLA by producing its best score of the season—a 198.025—to finish second at the first Pac-12 Championship held on podium.
Two weeks later in NCAA regional semifinal action, Utah saw its streak of 197 scores snapped, but its 196.800 was good enough to win the afternoon session over Minnesota, Arkansas and BYU. MyKayla Skinner won her third NCAA regional all-around and floor titles in as many seasons to lead the way.
The Utes clearly relished competing the next night in the regional final before a big, loud audience cheering for hometown LSU and they needed every tenth of their 197.250 score to keep their season alive. Holding a razor-thin 0.125 lead over Minnesota going into their final event on beam, all six Utes hit clutch routines to secure second place behind LSU and a trip to the NCAA Championships.
In Fort Worth, Texas, the Utes would fail to advance out of the power-packed NCAA afternoon semifinal, placing behind UCLA, Oklahoma and Michigan, but there were a number of great individual performances. Skinner, an NCAA individual champion as both a freshman and sophomore, finished in the top seven in the all-around, vault, bars and floor in her third trip to nationals, becoming the school's all-time All-America leader in the process with 26 career awards. Merrell-Giles won first-team All-America honors on floor by finishing eighth on vault across both sessions. Skinner (4) and Merrell-Giles (2) also won regular season All-America honors prior to the championships.
Utah bid goodbye to a remarkable four-person senior class that included Merrell-Giles, Lee, Macey Roberts and Shannon McNatt. In addition, shortly after returning to Salt Lake City from the championships, Skinner announced her intent to pursue a berth on the 2020 USA Olympic Team. If successful in her quest, Skinner would be eligible to compete one more season for Utah after the Olympics.
2019 Utah Gymnastics Highlights
Junior MyKayla Skinner set an NCAA record by performing 161 consecutive routines before the first and only fall of her career. In three seasons, she has hit 166-of-167 routines.
Skinner became Utah's all-time leader in All-America awards with 26—13 at the NCAA Championships and 13 regular season honors.
Skinner led Utah with 34 victories, giving her 111 career victories, which ranks third in school history.
Skinner was a four-time first-team All-American at the NCAA Championships, tying for fifth across both semifinals on vault (9.925) and floor (9.9375), tying for sixth on bars (9.9125) and placing seventh in the all-around (39.550). Senior MaKenna Merrell-Giles earned first-team All-America honors on vault at the NCAA Championships, tying for eighth (9.90).
Skinner (all-around, vault, bars, floor) and Merrell-Giles (vault, all-around) were also WCGA Regular Season All-Americans.
Skinner was the Pac-12 Champion on vault and floor (scoring a 10.0 at the Pac-12 Championship) and the Baton Rouge Regional all-around and floor champion. She now has eight career regional and seven Pac-12 individual titles to go with two NCAA championships.
Skinner won Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week four times to set the Pac-12 record for career Gymnast of the Week awards with 16.
Skinner (all-around, vault, bars, floor), Merrell-Giles (all-around, vault) and senior Kari Lee (beam) were named first team All-Pac-12 Conference. Skinner tied the record for most all-conference honors in a career with 14.
Senior Shannon McNatt became just the second Ute ever to win the prestigious Elite 90, which is awarded to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site of each NCAA Championship. She maintained a 3.99 cumulative GPA with a double major in quantitative analysis of markets and organizations (QAMO) and economics.
McNatt was also named to the CoSIDA Academic All-American All-District at-large first team.
Cristal Isa and Adrienne Randall won Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors.
Team awards went to Skinner (MVP), Kari Lee and Merrell-Giles (Greg Marsden Leadership Award), Macey Roberts (Coaches Award for Most Improved Gymnast) and Sydney Soloski (Dahl Academic-Athletic Award).
Utah finished with a 21-8 overall record, placing second at the Pac-12 Championship and the Baton Rouge Regional and finishing seventh at the NCAA Championships.
Utah led all NCAA women's sports in attendance for the ninth time, averaging 14,842 to its home meets.
And they did it while carrying an increasingly heavy burden of history. Every Utah team dating back to 1976 had made the NCAA Championship cut—a record among women's gymnastics programs.
The beginning of a new, challenging NCAA format marked the end of another era. College gymnastics legend Megan Marsden told her team on its return from the championships that she was retiring after 39 seasons with the Utes—35 as a coach and four as a national champion gymnast. Marsden leaves an indelible print on the NCAA landscape as the only woman to win national titles as a gymnast and a coach. She contributed to all 10 of Utah's national titles (four as a gymnast and six as a coach), including nine NCAA Championships.
The 2019 team, which she co-coached with Tom Farden, ensured she never missed a national championship during her tenure at Utah. Marsden's 39-consecutive trips to college gymnastics' biggest stage is the second longest streak in history and trails only her husband Greg Marsden, who took the Utes to 40-consecutive national championships before retiring after the 2015 season.
Fortunately for Utah, Farden had been groomed by the Marsdens to step in and take over the program when they retired—their intent when they hired him away from Arkansas in 2011. In his four seasons as the co-head coach with Megan, Farden managed the training schedule and recruiting. His roots in the program allowed her step away knowing the program was in good hands.
There were plenty of highlights leading up to the NCAA season finale. With MaKenna Merrell-Giles and Kari Lee as their senior co-captains, the 2019 Red Rocks opened their season with six straight wins. The team would set a school record for most 197 scores in a season with 13, including all 12 regular season meets. At the conference championship, the Utes applied the pressure on eventual winner UCLA by producing its best score of the season—a 198.025—to finish second at the first Pac-12 Championship held on podium.
Two weeks later in NCAA regional semifinal action, Utah saw its streak of 197 scores snapped, but its 196.800 was good enough to win the afternoon session over Minnesota, Arkansas and BYU. MyKayla Skinner won her third NCAA regional all-around and floor titles in as many seasons to lead the way.
The Utes clearly relished competing the next night in the regional final before a big, loud audience cheering for hometown LSU and they needed every tenth of their 197.250 score to keep their season alive. Holding a razor-thin 0.125 lead over Minnesota going into their final event on beam, all six Utes hit clutch routines to secure second place behind LSU and a trip to the NCAA Championships.
In Fort Worth, Texas, the Utes would fail to advance out of the power-packed NCAA afternoon semifinal, placing behind UCLA, Oklahoma and Michigan, but there were a number of great individual performances. Skinner, an NCAA individual champion as both a freshman and sophomore, finished in the top seven in the all-around, vault, bars and floor in her third trip to nationals, becoming the school's all-time All-America leader in the process with 26 career awards. Merrell-Giles won first-team All-America honors on floor by finishing eighth on vault across both sessions. Skinner (4) and Merrell-Giles (2) also won regular season All-America honors prior to the championships.
Utah bid goodbye to a remarkable four-person senior class that included Merrell-Giles, Lee, Macey Roberts and Shannon McNatt. In addition, shortly after returning to Salt Lake City from the championships, Skinner announced her intent to pursue a berth on the 2020 USA Olympic Team. If successful in her quest, Skinner would be eligible to compete one more season for Utah after the Olympics.
2019 Utah Gymnastics Highlights
Junior MyKayla Skinner set an NCAA record by performing 161 consecutive routines before the first and only fall of her career. In three seasons, she has hit 166-of-167 routines.
Skinner became Utah's all-time leader in All-America awards with 26—13 at the NCAA Championships and 13 regular season honors.
Skinner led Utah with 34 victories, giving her 111 career victories, which ranks third in school history.
Skinner was a four-time first-team All-American at the NCAA Championships, tying for fifth across both semifinals on vault (9.925) and floor (9.9375), tying for sixth on bars (9.9125) and placing seventh in the all-around (39.550). Senior MaKenna Merrell-Giles earned first-team All-America honors on vault at the NCAA Championships, tying for eighth (9.90).
Skinner (all-around, vault, bars, floor) and Merrell-Giles (vault, all-around) were also WCGA Regular Season All-Americans.
Skinner was the Pac-12 Champion on vault and floor (scoring a 10.0 at the Pac-12 Championship) and the Baton Rouge Regional all-around and floor champion. She now has eight career regional and seven Pac-12 individual titles to go with two NCAA championships.
Skinner won Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week four times to set the Pac-12 record for career Gymnast of the Week awards with 16.
Skinner (all-around, vault, bars, floor), Merrell-Giles (all-around, vault) and senior Kari Lee (beam) were named first team All-Pac-12 Conference. Skinner tied the record for most all-conference honors in a career with 14.
Senior Shannon McNatt became just the second Ute ever to win the prestigious Elite 90, which is awarded to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site of each NCAA Championship. She maintained a 3.99 cumulative GPA with a double major in quantitative analysis of markets and organizations (QAMO) and economics.
McNatt was also named to the CoSIDA Academic All-American All-District at-large first team.
Cristal Isa and Adrienne Randall won Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors.
Team awards went to Skinner (MVP), Kari Lee and Merrell-Giles (Greg Marsden Leadership Award), Macey Roberts (Coaches Award for Most Improved Gymnast) and Sydney Soloski (Dahl Academic-Athletic Award).
Utah finished with a 21-8 overall record, placing second at the Pac-12 Championship and the Baton Rouge Regional and finishing seventh at the NCAA Championships.
Utah led all NCAA women's sports in attendance for the ninth time, averaging 14,842 to its home meets.
Players Mentioned
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